Introducing the client portal: let clients upload documents directly

The document collection problem is one of the oldest in accounting. You send a reminder, the client confirms they'll get the records over, and then nothing. You send a follow-up, they apologise and promise to look for the P60. Another week passes. What sounds like a client management issue is really an infrastructure issue: there's no frictionless path for a client to hand over a document. Email attachments get buried. Shared drives require logins. Asking clients to post physical records is increasingly unrealistic. Prompt's client portal is designed to remove every obstacle between the client and the upload.

Each reminder email sent by Prompt contains a personalised, filing-specific portal link. The link requires no account creation and no password — clicking it takes the client directly to their secure upload page, pre-loaded with a checklist of the documents needed for that specific filing. For a Corporation Tax filing, the checklist might include the P&L, balance sheet, bank statements, and loan agreements. For Self Assessment, it lists employment income documents, rental income records, and any capital gains disposals. Clients see exactly what's needed, upload directly against each item, and the portal confirms receipt in real time.

From the practice dashboard, every filing shows live document status: which items have been uploaded, which are outstanding, and when each file arrived. There's no need to check email or ask a colleague whether the records came in — the information is surfaced automatically. When documents remain outstanding as the deadline approaches, Prompt's automated follow-up sequence continues to fire with a fresh portal link in each message, so the client always has a current, working route to submit.

Security was a primary design consideration. Portal links are short-lived and filing-specific — a link for a 2025 CT600 cannot be used to access any other client's data or any other filing period. All uploaded files are stored in EU-region infrastructure, and downloads from the practice dashboard are served via short-lived signed URLs with no direct storage access exposed. Every upload and every download is logged to a full audit trail, giving practices the accountability records they need for professional standards compliance.